Ryan Nicol
A bill aiming to increase fertility clinic regulations and prevent unwanted pelvic exams is headed to the Governor as of Wednesday.
Sen. Lauren Book sponsored the legislation (SB 698) during the 2020 Session.
The bill criminalizes the insemination of a woman with a person’s genetic material without her knowledge.
The push comes after reports of fertility doctors using their own sperm to inseminate women who thought they were receiving sperm from a donor.
If the measure is signed, it would be a third-degree felony to inseminate a women with genetic material she did not consent to. If that material belongs to the doctor himself, the offense becomes a second-degree felony.
Book and her husband utilized the in-vitro fertilization process to help conceive.
“We put our whole lives, a small fortune and complete faith and trust into the hands of a physician,” Book said.
“On my IVF journey, I learned that there are many, many good infertility doctors who do the right thing and work to do the best thing by their patients. But since that time, I’ve come to learn about many others who have fallen prey to careless and even intentional harm inflicted in a largely unregulated industry.”
The bill also explicitly requires consent before a pelvic examination is performed on a female patient at a hospital. Medical students routinely practice different types of exams on hospital patients, with the patient’s consent.
However, those consent forms often don’t elaborate on specifically which types of exams are approved. Book’s legislation requires pelvic exams to be explicitly listed on a consent form.
During House debate on the bill, Rep. Evan Jenne added a provision extending that ban — sans clear consent — to teaching doctors as well.
“We were afraid that even though while it might stop medical students from doing it that you could still have this situation where a teaching doctor was performing a pelvic floor exam on an unconscious, unconsenting women while the medical students just stood there and watched, but it was still happening,” Jenne said.
The bill was one of several sent to the Governor Wednesday.
One comment
Florida Voice for the Unborn
June 5, 2020 at 2:08 pm
Florida Voice for the Unborn is calling upon pro-life Governor Ron DeSantis to veto Senate Bill 698, which is one of twenty-one bills that Legislative leaders finally presented to DeSantis on Wednesday, June 3, 2020. Senate Bill 698, sponsored by pro-abortion state Senator Lauren Book (D – Plantation), seeks to address the issue of unscrupulous fertility doctors using their own genetic material to impregnate female patients. While that is a noble aim, the bill also contains language that fundamentally violates the dignity of human life in its most vulnerable state, i.e. as a tiny zygote.
Florida Voice for the Unborn has vehemently objected to Senate Bill 698 because it contains a novel definition of “reproductive material.” As defined in the final version of the bill, “reproductive material” is “any human ‘egg’ or ‘sperm’ as those terms are defined in s. 742.13, or human zygote.” The next line of the bill then defines “zygote” as “a fertilized ovum.”
Florida Voice for the Unborn’s position is that a unique human being comes into existence at the moment of fertilization. As unique human beings, zygotes can never be considered the equivalent of “sperm” and “eggs” — and cannot be termed under the law as “reproductive material.” Moreover, Senate Bill 698 contains additional troubling provisions, which were added in at the very last minute and imply that human embryos are not unique human beings but rather are “things” that are in the possession of others.
For the past few months, Florida Voice for the Unborn has been sounding the alarm about Senate Bill 698, which has been deeply flawed and agenda-driven from its inception. It is a trojan horse that seeks to sneak anti-human life provisions into Florida law through the backdoor.
On Tuesday, June 2, 2020, just one day prior to Legislative leaders presenting Senate Bill 698 to the governor, an article that Florida Voice for the Unborn’s executive director authored about Senate Bill 698 was published on the website of the Society of St. Sebastian, a national pro-life public policy organization. In his article, entitled, “Florida Senate Bill 698: A Trojan Horse,” our executive director exposes the dirty legislative tricks that were utilized to pass this flawed bill in Florida’s pro-life majority Legislature.
The timing of Senate Bill 698’s presentation to Governor DeSantis is suspicious. It is also troubling that the main pro-life legislation passed this year, the parental-consent-prior-to-an-abortion bill, still has not yet been given to Governor DeSantis to sign, even though it was passed on February 20, 2020, which is several weeks before the COVID-19 emergency started. I do not know what backroom deal may be at play, but I do know this. Florida pro-life grassroots activists were angered and disappointed with Governor DeSantis’ failure to close our state’s abortion centers during the height of the COVID-19 emergency. Over the past few days, pro-life activists throughout Florida have been contacting the governor via Florida Voice for the Unborn’s website petition, requesting that he do the right thing concerning Senate Bill 698. Governor DeSantis risks further alienating his pro-life base if he chooses to ignore our pleas on behalf of our unborn brothers and sisters. Governor DeSantis campaigned on a pro-life platform, and we expect him to govern in a pro-life fashion. Accordingly, Governor DeSantis must veto Senate Bill 698.
Florida Voice for the Unborn is a new grassroots Tallahassee-based lobbying group that only focuses on pro-life issues impacting the unborn. It is strictly independent, and its work is guided by faith in God’s only Son, Jesus Christ. Florida Voice for the Unborn supports all peaceful efforts by elected officials and others to end abortion and save lives. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest @UnbornVoiceFL – and visit our website.
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